Gael Garcia Bernal turns serious in No'

When Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal goes to work in Hollywood, he usually pops up in comedies and romances.

Remember him as the drug lord with a Scarface complex in “Casa de mi Padre” or the chef who woos Amanda Seyfried in “Letters to Juliet” or the cancer doctor who falls for Kate Hudson in “A Little Bit of Heaven”?

But when Garcia Bernal performs in his native language, he tends to prefer more serious fare. Think of his performance as the young Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara in “The Motorcycle Diaries” or his turn as a single-minded filmmaker in “Even the Rain,” a movie about water rights in Bolivia.

“No,” his latest feature, is his most political film to date. Directed by Chile’s Pablo Larraine, the movie (opening Friday) is set in 1988 as Chile was preparing to hold a referendum vote about whether or not dictator Pinochet should remain in power for another eight years. Garcia Bernal plays Rene, an advertising genius ala “Mad Men’s” Don Draper who is asked to help organize the campaign against Pinochet.

As soon as Bernal read the screenplay, he was eager to help Larraine bring his vision to life.

“In Latin America ... politics are very much on the surface, all the time, in a sense,” says the actor, 34, who’s directed movies for Amnesty International and took part in peaceful demonstrations for the Chiapas Indians.

“The reason why I mention this is that in the United States, politics seems something separate from daily life. It’s, like, ‘I’m going to go do politics and then go back home.’

“But in Latin America, you’re always doing politics in every single action in your mundane existence. So, this just (happens) to be one of the most full-on political stories that I’ve ever had a chance to participate in. This was (a look) at what democracy means, (set against the backdrop) of (a referendum vote) in Chile.

“And its about not only on how (the vote) shaped Chile, but how it changed the world that we live in now.”

So far, “No” has netted a positive response from critics and audiences. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews, landed a distribution deal with Sony Pictures Classics, and went on to net a nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film award at this year’s Academy Awards. (It lost to “Amour.”)

“The nomination (was) a great opportunity because it meant the film will be seen in many different parts of the world,” says Bernal. “It is quite fantastic that out of 71 countries, this film got nominated.”

As Larraine was envisioning the movie, he knew he wanted to make extensive use of archival newsreel footage. Worried that continually cutting between old and new footage would pull audiences out of the story, he opted to shoot the entire movie with a period-appropriate U-matic video camera from the early ’80s.

“We shot ‘No’ with a camera that has less resolution than an iPhone,” notes Garcia Bernal. “What I like about this movie is that it never loses its rhythm. It carries you along.I t just flows.”

Garcia Bernal says the overwhelmingly positive response to “No” proves that a good movie can by made by anyone, anywhere for any amount of money.

“What’s great about the movie just in cinematic terms is that it speaks to this freedom that we’re experiencing in Latin America now,” says the actor, who’s been selected by 20th Century Fox to play the starring role in an upcoming Zorro reboot called “Zorro Reborn.”

“You can grab a camera and just start doing a movie. You don’t need much of an organization behind you. You need rigor but you don’t need this huge amount of infrastructure to do a movie.”

Despite the documentary-like nature of the film, Larraine took poetic license when he was shaping the story. Bernal’s character, for instance, is a composite of two men who were key to the referendum vote. (Ironically, the real-life figures appear in cameos as Pinochet’s yes men).

As far as Bernal is concerned, a fictional story like “No” illuminates history much more powerfully than a straight-up documentary.

“Kids in Chile and who didn’t live through this might be able to understand a little bit of what happened,” says the actor, who is married to actress Dolores Fonzi with whom he has two children, ages 4 and 2.

“Memory is so necessary not only in Latin America but everywhere in the world. To be aware of what happened and, in a way, to interpret it and reflect on it - what better way to do it than in a fiction.

“It’s a fable, it’s a fiction. I think therefore the film can speak to more angles and can cause more shivers.”

Ask Bernal what was the most challenging aspect of the role and he has a laundry list of obstacles he had to overcome.

“First of all, the (character’s) Italian accent was a big challenge. We wanted to create a character that had this otherness, this foreignness even in his own country.

“(Since he works in publicity,” I wanted to make him see the world both in a childish and technical way. But his lack of political (savvy) was something that was difficult to play in a very political movie.”

Garcia Bernal is used to hard work. He’s been performing since he was a child, when he began acting with his parents in a series of plays. When he was 14, he began landing roles on a number of popular Mexican soap operas.

Five years later, he gave up his lucrative telenovela career and moved to London where he became the first Mexican actor accepted into the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

In 1999, he returned home to shoot his first major feature “Amores Perros,” a gritty thriller that, along with the 2001’s “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” launched his international career.

“When I did ‘Amores Perros,’ I didn’t even have a contract,” recalls the actor. “The one little perk I asked for was a VHS tape of the movie so I could show it to my family. Now there is a chance that (Mexican) films will come out in the cinema but back in those days, there wasn’t a chance that my family would see it (on the big screen).

“Then, the next thing I know it won (the Grand Prize) at Cannes and it was like, ‘Ahhhhh!’ You never expect those things.”